Victoria Point

Information and images from resources held in Local History Collections, Redland City Council Libraries. Local History website localhistory@redland.qld.gov.au or 3829 8311

WARNING: Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples should be aware that this document may

contain the images and/or names of people who have passed away.

Top to Bottom: Stradbroke Island; Southern Moreton Bay Islands; Victoria Point; Point Halloran, 1987

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Contents Quandamooka people ..............................................................................................................................................2 Exploration ...............................................................................................................................................................4 European Settlement................................................................................................................................................5 Local Government ................................................................................................................................................. 10 Twentieth Century ................................................................................................................................................. 12 1910s ..................................................................................................................................................................... 12 1920s ..................................................................................................................................................................... 15 1930s ..................................................................................................................................................................... 16 1940s ..................................................................................................................................................................... 20 1949 ....................................................................................................................................................................... 23 1950s ..................................................................................................................................................................... 24 1960s ..................................................................................................................................................................... 28 1970s ..................................................................................................................................................................... 34 1980s ..................................................................................................................................................................... 36 1990s ..................................................................................................................................................................... 38 21st Century ........................................................................................................................................................... 41

Point Halloran with Victoria Point in the distance, 1987 HP6170

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Quandamooka people have lived on and around this area for tens of thousands of years. Geological evidence dates occupation at a minimum of 21,000 years. Local people identify the Noonucal, Gorenpul and Nughi as the traditional owners of the Island and adjoining areas. Food supplies were plentiful. Fishing, hunting and gathering were part of the communal economy, with people collecting food according to their carrying capacity, and food shared according to families’ needs. Dugong as well as fish such as mullet and tailor were caught with nets, sometimes aided by dolphins. Turtle and shellfish were also collected. Oysters, mullet, crabs, cowrie, prawns, cockles, eugarie, mussels and turtle were common foods at different times of the year. Other foods hunted and collected at different times of the year included kangaroo, wallaby, goannas, flying foxes, birds, possum, and bandicoots, native fruits and berries, honey, and drinks made from flowers. Bungwal/dingowa the rhizome of a fern, was pounded into flour, to make a type of damper or bread, and once a year a journey was made to the Bunya Mountains to gather bunya nuts, which could also be used the same way, or eaten roasted or fresh. Grind stones have been dated back more than 30,000 years, making Aboriginal people the world’s first bakers. Corroborees and other ceremonies were an integral part of community life, and huge regional celebrations were likely to have had ceremonial, spiritual, social, cultural and economic significance. Campsites and dwellings existed wherever there was fresh water nearby.

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Eprapah Creek was important to Aboriginal people, both the tidal zone and the freshwater upstream. A large village is known to have existed on the banks of the creek in what is now the Eprapah and Point Halloran Conservation area, as well as camps further upstream. The Aboriginal name for Victoria Point was Warrer Warrer (or Warra Warra). Victoria Point was first surveyed in 1859, and the first portions were sold in 1860. It is not known how long it took the settlers to displace the indigenous people living on and around the Point; various personal accounts up to the 1880s exist, of Aborigines living on the foreshore, including the reserve on the tip of the Point. Leona Kyling noted that the sounds of waddies and corroborees could be heard in the area surrounding the aged care home that she built on Boundary Road, and which opened in 1960, possibly from the Eprapah Creek camp. Over the centuries, many tracks and travel routes were formed on the islands and the mainland. When the European settlers arrived, these tracks proved invaluable to their own travels. Descendants of the original residents still live in the area, especially on Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island). When the first Europeans arrived in the area in the 1820s, Aboriginal people in the area we now call Redland City numbered more than 5,000. Link Road is a direct link between Eprapah and Moogurrapum Creeks, and this connection between the two would have been important. In the 20th Century an Aboriginal family owned and farmed almost a quarter of the farmland at the southern end of the road.

1955 QImagery

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Exploration Captain Matthew Flinders entered Moreton Bay. He landed at several places, including what is now Coochiemudlo Island, which he described as having “large and luxuriant” trees, including abundant mangrove trees, pandanus palms and Bribie Island pine trees, and sand on the south-west and north-east sides. Fauna included cockatoos and parakeets. He also noted what he thought was a wide, shallow river which was in fact Redland Bay. Nowadays, his Coochiemudlo Island visit is celebrated on Flinders Day every July, often with a re-enactment of his landing.

Re-enactment of Flinders landing at Coochiemudlo Island, 1990 HP8036

1822 In March John Bingle entered Moreton Bay in search of a place, preferably with a river that might suit a new penal settlement. He didn’t find any major rivers but he provided some of the earliest recorded descriptions of the coastline. 1837 The first steamship entered Moreton Bay. 1839 Government surveyors Dixon, Warner and Stapylton began surveying Brisbane in preparation for the first land sales. Until this time, free settlers were not allowed within 50 miles of the Moreton Bay penal settlement (Brisbane), which is why there was no official European presence on the mainland parts of what is now the Redland Shire.

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1840s Government surveyor Robert Dixon began surveying Stradbroke and Moreton Islands. He and Surveyor Warner also surveyed the coast from Brisbane River to Innes (Coochiemudlo) Island. Dixon named Mount Cotton after Major Cotton and Coochiemudlo Island ‘Innes Island’ after Lieutenant Innes of the 57th Regiment of Moreton Bay. He also named Macleay and Russell Islands, Victoria Point and Point Halloran. Point Halloran was called Point Henry on the earliest maps, then it was renamed Point Halloran after the first government surveys were completed in the mid-1800s. It was most likely named after Arthur Edward Halloran, who was Sheriff of Queensland at that time. An 1842 map by Surveyors Dixon and Liley shows that many of the European place names for local features had already been documented by then. It also shows some tracks that later became major roads.

In May 1842 the Moreton Bay penal settlement was officially proclaimed closed and the area was open to free settlers. In July the first public sale of Brisbane land was held. European Settlement When Queensland was still part of New South Wales, all of the area from Ormiston south to the Logan River was leased to Joseph Clark, and he ran cattle on the land. The new colony of Queensland was created in 1859, and Separation Day 10 December was celebrated for many years to come. Victoria Point was first surveyed that year, and the first portions of land were sold in 1860. Brisbane businessman Johann Christian Heussler was appointed by the new Queensland Government to recruit German settlers for the new colony. In the following years, many Germans settled in Queensland. The earliest settlers in Victoria Point were John and Maria Dawson and Joseph Scragg, who were farmers, and bullock driver William Nutt. John Dawson died in 1865 and Maria married William Nutt. For many years they had been the only 3 people living in Victoria Point.

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The first cottage built by John and Maria Dawson was near the corner of Wilson Street and Wilson Lane. A more substantial house was built by Maria and William Nutt, probably in the late 1880s, and this was extended by the Wilson family who lived there from 1916.

Wilson house; the Wilson land extended along most of Thompson’s Beach , 1916-1920 HP01062 & HP01066

Settlers in the Victoria Point area were mainly farmers and timbergetters, attracted by the area’s fertile land and abundant timber. There is also some evidence of potentially commercial oyster banks off the Victoria Point reserve.

1860s The farmers who moved to the area faced the usual problems of the time, especially regarding transporting their produce to the markets in Brisbane. Most transport was by water, and jetties were built at Cleveland Point in the 1860s and Redland Bay by the early 1870s to service the coastal steamers travelling between Brisbane and the farming districts of Albert and Logan. Victoria Point’s farmers travelled to either Cleveland or Redland Bay, but most often Redland Bay, to send their produce to market.

Other early settlers were the Colburn Family. Daniel Colburn Snr leased Portion 95, north of Colburn Avenue under the Crown Lands Alienation Act of 1868. They lived in a slab cottage that Colburn had built on the land by 1870. In 1874 he also leased nearby Portion 42 between Moogurrapum Creek and Thompson Street, south of Colburn Avenue/Link Road. After continuous residence within 15 miles of the leased land for the required 10 years, Colburn purchased both Portions. Soon after he also purchased Portions 6 and 7, to the south of Portion 95, and the house was moved about 300m by bullock dray in 1883 to Portion 7, a site on what was later named Colburn Avenue. After having extra buildings and extensions added over the years, the homestead was demolished almost 100 years later.

Daniel Colburn Snr’s farmhouse, north of Colburn Avenue, 1960s. Ray & Joy Colburn

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Daniel Colburn married Mary Clark, daughter of original land lease-holder Joseph Clark, in 1864. Daniel Colburn and James Willard both had cattle-dips that were used by other land-holders around the district. As well has his farm and home at Capalaba, Willard also owned a large 418 acre (170 hectare) parcel of land on the northern side of Mount Cotton Road, from Ney Road to Lyndon Road. Land in the Point Halloran area was originally bought by cotton grower Henry Scott, who owned all of the land we now know as Redland Bay, where he grew cotton and later established a sugar plantation. Other notable early land owners in the area include vigneron James Baron whose home near Wellington Point “Birkdale House” led to the name of the surrounding suburb; land speculator George Thorn who gave his name to Thornlands; and Brisbane Botanic Gardens Head Gardener and Cleveland Shire Chairman, James Pink who lived at his large 14 acre (5.5 hectare) nursery The Badgens on Hardy Road Wellington Point. 1870s

During the 1870s the eastern side of Point Halloran was owned by Messrs Raff and Nuttall. The western side was owned by [Sir] Joshua Peter Bell. Nuttall and Raff built a small cottage on the land that they named ‘Nura’ which was a combination of both their names.

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Daniel Colburn Snr and James Willard were major fund-raisers for St Paul’s Church of England, Cleveland which held its first service in 1874. Before that, multi-denominational services had previously been held at first under trees, on Wednesday mornings at Willards Farm and on Wednesday afternoons at the Cleveland court house and Police lock-up.

Most of the people who lived in this area were farmers, although timber-getting was an important industry in the early days. The name Eprapah continued to be used for the district until about 1915. The Crompton family, who lived between Bunker Road and the creek, were all involved in timber-getting, and Bunker Road was opened for timbergetters in 1875.

The area along Eprapah Creek at the end of Link Road was reserved as a rafting ground, to allow timbergetters to float their logs along the creek to the mills in either Cleveland, Wellington Point or up to Brisbane.

It is believed to have originally been an Aboriginal camp or village, at the northern end of a track that ran from Eprapah Creek to Moogurrapum Creek. A Kanaka (South Sea Island labourers’) camp set up at this site was in place until the late 1960s.

The cottage owned by Nuttall & Raff was used as the school house when the first school was established in 1877. It was situated along Point Halloran Road in the vicinity of Tern Street. This school was jointly run with the Mount Cotton School and the first full time teacher in Victoria Point was Thomas Daly.

At that time, Victoria Point was literally just the Point area, and the district was part of the Redland Bay region. The school was called the Redland Bay School. Thomas Daly is indirectly responsible for the school being re-named Victoria Point.

When schools were being established in the district, the Redland Bay, Mount Cotton, and Victoria Point Schools were all interrelated, sometimes sharing a teacher. When the school opened at Point Halloran it was called the Redland Bay School, and so Thomas Daly’s pay cheque was often sent to Redland Bay. He asked the Department to send his mail to Eprapah Creek instead.

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James Raff’s Point Halloran pineapple plantation and home, date unknown HP00200

In 1880 the name of the school was changed to Victoria Point and the southern part of the Redland Bay district had begun lobbying for its own ‘half-time’ school by then.

In 1882 Victoria Point became a full-time school.

In 1879 the Divisional Boards Act came into effect, giving us our first local government areas. The Tingalpa Divisional Board was formed, covering what is now the Redland Shire and surrounding areas to the Logan River. It met for the first time at Mr Heinemann’s house at Mount Cotton. HP00189

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Local Government In 1885 the Cleveland Divisional Board (Shire Council) was separated from Tingalpa. It covered the coastal areas east from Tingalpa Creek and south to Eprapah Creek. Eprapah Creek and the aptly named Boundary Road separated the Cleveland and Tingalpa Shires. Victoria Point remained in the Tingalpa Division, although residents felt more connected to the Cleveland district, with the shops and businesses there being their closest, and even as recently as the 1940s during WWII (5 years before amalgamation of the shires) the two councils were at loggerheads over issues such as which emergency evacuation or casualty centres Victoria Point residents should attend, and who should train them in first aid. Following requests from Victoria Point Cleveland Shire Council argued that they should attend at Cleveland, but Tingalpa disagreed. In 1889 the Cleveland-Brisbane railway was built, offering another transport option to Victoria Point’s farmers, and it increased their connection to Cleveland rather than Tingalpa. Until then, transporting their produce to market by boat had been the only viable option for many.

Cleveland Central railway goods yard in Shore Street, looking east. Passage Street runs to the right at the top of the hill, 1930s HP0398

However, this did not deter one of Moreton Bay’s bigger shipping companies, John Burke Ltd, from building facilities for its boats in Victoria Point. John Burke Ltd had been the main shipping company using the Redland Bay jetty since at least the 1890s, and in 1906 the company successfully urged the Tingalpa Shire Council to build a new jetty at Redland Bay. It also got behind farmers such as James Raff who were lobbying the council for a jetty at Victoria Point for local fruit growers. Burke & Son heard about the jetty and asked to be kept informed, presumably with a view to bringing their boats there too

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1890s The Tingalpa Divisional Board calculated the entire population of the Tingalpa area at 1173. This large Division included southern and inland parts of the current Redland City, much of Logan and southern Brisbane suburbs. Eprapah’s first official post office, a mail receiving office only, was set up at Hermann Holzapfel’s store at Eprapah Creek, at the corner of Cleveland-Redland Bay Road and Boundary Road, near Mango Street. The store had been used as a post office unofficially for several years by that time.

Flying foxes were perceived as vermin and a threat to farmers after a sudden increase in their population particularly in the areas south of Eprapah. Farmers petitioned the Tingalpa Divisional Board to eradicate them. There was a bounty of 2d (2c) a head on them. By this stage, fruit had almost replaced sugar as the main crop in the district. The sugar industry was in decline partly because European countries were flooding the sugar market with sugar beet, and the colonial government had indicated that it planned to phase out South Sea Islander labour, which would have increased production costs.

During the 1800s, people from the South Pacific Islands were taken from their homelands to work on the sugar plantations in Queensland. These people were known as Kanakas. Most had been sent home by 1905, but many chose to remain and a large group of Kanakas continued to live in this area. During the 1930s some were employed by Mr Walter Yeo. Many lived in the area until the late 1960s when their houses at the northern end of Link Road were condemned.

W Yeo Universal Providore. Image from the Redlands Centenary Souvenir 1850 - 1950

Herman Snr and Anna Holzapfel (at right); Mary Winch and Elizabeth Lawrence (both nee Holzapfel) seated on steps; Charlie and Henry (Winch and Lawrence?), c1900 HP0282

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Twentieth Century In 1902 the divisional boards were renamed shire councils.

The jetty project appears to have spearheaded the Council taking over the reserve on the end of Victoria Point in 1909. The jetty and a track leading to it were completed by May 1909, and John Burke Ltd’s exclusive licence to use it gave the company a virtual monopoly on shipping in that part of the Bay. This lasted until the company sold the jetty to the Tingalpa Shire Council in 1922, possibly because the jetty was not especially profitable; in the 1920s Burke and Son received much more income from the produce shipped from Redland Bay than from Victoria Point. The following year the Burke monopoly appears to have ended when Gibson Bros was given permission to use the jetty under the same conditions as Burke & Son.

Victoria Point’s farmers continued to ship produce from the jetty into the 1920s until cars and trucks, and professional carriers, slowly began to take over the steamers’ trade. By the 1930s the Victoria Point jetty was rarely used to ship produce.

Victoria Point jetty, c1940. An older jetty is behind it, and the reserve has many tents on it. HP1049

James Raff was active in the development of Victoria Point, offering his services to the Tingalpa Shire Council for road and land clearing etc. In 1908 he wrote to the Tingalpa Shire Council offering to contribute to the cost of building a jetty at Victoria Point for local fruit growers. He also frequently lobbied the Council re clearing roads, and in 1909 he appears to have subdivided some of his Point Halloran land.

1910s Speeding motor cars, and the damage they caused to roads and bridges not built to withstand the weight and usage, led to moves by the Automobile Club and other organisations to lobby the State Government to take over the main roads.

The Shire Councils were also advised by the State Government that they would have to raise funds impose a wheel tax to be earmarked for the upkeep of these roads.

The Tingalpa Shire Council passed a bylaw limiting the speed of automobiles and velocipedes (bicycles) to 12 mph (19.5 kph) except on corners and around railway stations, intersections of places of public gathering where the speed was 4 mph (6.4 kph).

Following the random slaughter of black swans by the occupants of a motor boat on Moreton Bay, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals urged action by the Cleveland Shire Council. In response the Cleveland Shire Council passed a resolution to have the whole Shire declared a reserve for black swans under the provisions of the Native Birds Protection Act. The Tingalpa Shire was declared a similar reserve in 1914.

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Tingalpa Shire Council raised the bounty on flying fox scalps.

Flying fox shooting group Redland Bay, 1914 HP0394

Red Bicycle Touring Club at Victoria Point, 1913 SLQ image

The Red Bicycle Touring Club are pictured here in Victoria Point in 1913, displaying some of their other recreational activities. Hopefully slicing a loaf of bread on your knee with an axe was not really a hobby!

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The Tingalpa Shire Council Chairman, Isaac Dennis, attended the opening of a stone crusher owned by the Sherwood Shire Council. He reported that it was capable of crushing gravel for 1s 3d (13c) compared with the existing rate of 6s (60c) when done by hand.

On June 15 1915, 4 years before his death, Daniel Coburn Senior signed over a small portion of his land at 11 Point Halloran Road to the Government, to be used for the building of a Public Hall. The hall was built by 1916, and the appointed trustees were his son Daniel William Colburn Jnr and Thomas Webber Raymont. Colburn Jnr remained a trustee until his death in 1954. Raymont owned 100 acres at the north-west corner of Woodlands Drive and Mount Cotton Road. From 1920, he was replaced by Tingalpa Councillor William Stern (until his death in 1939) and by Wilhelm Benfer. Trustees were appointed until 1971, when Redland Shire Council took over ownership. It was officially leased to the Guides for 20 years commencing from 1 July 1979, after which time the lease has continued to be renewed.

The public hall at 11 Point Halloran Road, on land donated by Daniel William Colburn Snr. The hall was also an agency for the E S & A Bank.

Victoria Point Public Hall, date unknown HP00202

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The first permanent school was established at Victoria Point in 1916 after operating there as a provisional school for nearly 40 years. It was relocated to its current site on School Road. During the late 1920s, headmaster George Dreveson instigated a School Club where the children learnt the basics of plant management and crop marketability. More people moved to the area after World War I and farmers of this era included the Wilsons who purchased Maria (Dawson) and William Nutt’s old home in 1916. The Wilsons took over the pineapple plantation on the site and planted custard apple trees, and carried on farming small crops including tomatoes, cabbages, cucumbers, carrots and beetroot. The Wilsons were typical of the farming families in the area.

Wilson’s extended home and pineapple crop, early 1920s HP01064

The telephone was connected to the Victoria Point Post Office in 1918, which by then was situated at the home of William Yeo. 1920s Fishermen and recreational users had been camping on the Victoria Point reserve for years but it was not until the 1920s that lobbying began for facilities such as sanitary services, swimming baths and a kiosk. Mrs Dixon asked the Tingalpa Shire Council if she could build a kiosk on the Victoria Point reserve. After many months, the Council did not give the go-ahead. J Masters was appointed by the Tingalpa Shire Council as caretaker of the Reserve. He also wanted to erect a kiosk. He resigned as caretaker in April the same year. The Tingalpa Shire Council’s response was to introduce camping fees. The issue of the kiosk occupied residents, visitors and the permanently cash-strapped Tingalpa Shire Council for another three years, and eventually in December 1927 a 10-year lease was granted to Mr Helmkin in return for him building the kiosk and looking after the sanitary conveniences, rubbish bins and other facilities on the reserve. Other facilities soon followed; tennis courts had been built on the high part of the reserve and in mid-1927 the Victoria Point Tennis Club added a shed for the players. The activities of the tennis players raised the ire of the local churches, and in 1929 Rev FA Malcolm of the Cleveland Methodist Church tried unsuccessfully to have tennis playing banned on Sundays. Over the next few years, more and more facilities were added to the reserve. Electricity came to Victoria Point in 1928. By this time shoreline erosion must have been a problem because the Tingalpa Shire Council decided to build a retaining wall along the foreshore at the foot of the bank at the reserve.

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The Queensland government declared an open season on koalas in 1927 in a bid to relieve the rural crisis. Although wildlife groups advised the government that the koala neared extinction, the slaughter went ahead. The following year the Nature Lovers’ League asked the Tingalpa Shire Council to protect koalas in the shire. Millions of Queensland koalas had been culled, and they were virtually extinct in the district by the time hunting came to an end. The skins had been sent to the USA and London, marketed as bear-skins to make the product more acceptable to consumers. This became the origin of the misnomer, the ‘koala bear’.

The Scouting Association of Australia (Queensland Branch) bought 39ha of land next to Eprapah Creek in 1928. In 1934 the Redland Bay scout den was moved to the site, and it was used as a centre for leadership training until 1953.

Bird’s corner store, at the corner of Cleveland-Redland Bay Road and Colburn Avenue. Joe Bird lying down with pipe, and the Echardt boys, 1920s HP0317

1930s In 1930 a first aid station was run by the Wynnum QATB (Queensland Ambulance Transport Brigade) at the Victoria Point Reserve for campers during holiday times. More jetties were added, mainly for the holiday-recreational market rather than for the farmers, although Coochiemudlo Island resident and farmer Doug Morton also built a jetty off the north point of the Victoria Point reserve in 1931, then applied to extend it by 150 feet (45m) the following year. Local boat hirers ET Dixon and EE Colburn were also operating on the Point.

In the early 1930s the school requested a power point for an electric wireless (radio). The Tingalpa Shire Council deferred discussions about providing electricity to the reserve for lighting and for the use of campers. Richard Luker was appointed to collect camp fees. Mr Helmkin had been doing so for some time, but the Council seemed to have trouble getting him to hand the takings over.

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Motor cyclists and their noisy exhausts were causing a nuisance at the Victoria Point reserve. It was later reported that they were using the reserve to perform stunts.

In August 1933 Mr Helmkin applied to transfer the lease of the kiosk to Messrs Doan and Tomby of Brisbane. The Tingalpa Shire Council said ‘not until all the rent had been paid and further information supplied’. The transfer was approved at the September meeting. Doan and Tomley almost immediately asked Council to light the reserve and to supply extra toilets and garbage tins. The Council refused to light the reserve.

The district’s first strawberry festival was held in 1933 at the home of Bill Airey on Redland Bay Road near Coolnwynpin Creek to raise funds for the Capalaba School of Arts hall. The Festival was revived in October 1958 at Victoria Point on the Reserve, where it ran for a couple of years before parking problems caused it to be discontinued.

In 1934 the Tingalpa Shire Council, after years of good intentions in response to lobbying by the kiosk vendors, finally passed a by-law regulating itinerant vendors in the Shire. Helmkin wanted to sublet the kiosk for 12 months; Council heard that Mr Doan’s management of the reserve was very good. George Stern was appointed to collect camp fees at Victoria Point. £11.8s.6d ($20) was collected during the Christmas period.

In 1934, the boy scouts removed the old scout hall from Redland Bay and transported it to the land they had at Eprapah Creek. This was the Queensland training camp from 1928 until 1953.

Almost the entire district turned out for the visit of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester in 1934. A civic reception was held at the Redlands Memorial Hall (the RSL). The Duke also visited Mr AF Smith’s farm Beaconsfield on Moreton Road, Thornlands, to inspect some of the produce then grown in the Redlands.

Jetty at Victoria point built by Doug Morton in 1931, with trolley and rails to cart his produce (to sell on Sundays at Victoria Point). The first car in Victoria Point; owned by Daniel Colburn Jnr, early 1930s HP05760

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Pumpkins and watermelones at Tom Moore’s farm on the corner of Colburn Avenue and Drysland Street, date unknown. HP5260

Ten trees were cut down on the reserve so that electricity lines could be laid. AP Ridley and AA Salisbury were given permission to build a galvanised iron shed on piles north of the old council jetty for storage of produce and goods.

Clearing trees to finally lay electricity lines to the kiosk on the reserve, 1938 HP01344

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The Mitchell family enjoying a picnic day at the beach; Victoria Point 1935 HP00344

Mr Helmkin passed his kiosk lease to Mrs Lucy Magdalene Kelly. Mrs Kelly also leased the tennis courts on the reserve. More than £8,000 (over $14,000) was made available by the government for work to be carried out by relief workers in the district during 1937-1938.

Relief workers were employed around the district in an early kind of work-for-the-dole scheme between the two world wars, especially on the foreshores and reserves. Retaining walls, reclamation work and tree plantings were carried out. The relief workers also repaired roads and jetties, and carried out some work at the Victoria Point School.

The Tingalpa Shire Council wanted navigation lights off Victoria Point, and Flood Plunkett lobbied for them. Council also resolved to build a laundry shed and toilet for the kiosk lessees. The Queensland Government placed the Victoria Point foreshores under the control of the Tingalpa Shire Council. The foreshores around the reserve were being “menaced by erosion” and urgent work was needed.

Tree planting was discussed for Reserve, including Cyprus pines. At this time the Main Roads Department was planning fairly major works on the main road to the Point. Council applied for a £500 ($880) loan for works at Victoria Point. Engineer John Wilson was asked to draw up plans and specifications. The work was to include a 96 feet (30m) wide bathing enclosure projecting 127 feet (nearly 40m) out from the shore; a dressing shed 24ft x 15ft (7m x 4.5m) divided into two, and footbridge connecting shed to shore. Because of the looming war, the Tingalpa Shire Council decided to defer a decision.

The old jetty was in a state of disrepair and EC Fison (engineer) had lodged a report raising concerns in Council that they might be liable if somebody hurt themselves on the jetty. The Tingalpa Shire Council was later advised that they would be liable for accidents on both jetties on the Point.

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1940s Mr Holt was contracted to supply water to the reserve in the late 1930s, and Council had to repair the sea walls after they were damaged by a gale. Prospects for a new Victoria Point road looked good. The Wynnum QATB was planning to use an old railway carriage for ambulance purposes on Victoria Point reserve, particularly during holiday periods when there were many campers on the reserve. The new First Aid building was opened on 12 April 1941.

Railway carriage used by Queensland Ambulance Transport Brigade (QATB) as First Aid station, c1950 HP00484

Mr Sibley asked for a rent reduction on the kiosk because he was making a loss. The request was approved. Tingalpa Shire Council bought Mr Helmkin’s jetty and almost immediately closed it due to fears of accidents for which the Council would have been liable. And finally it looked as if the new road was going ahead.

The MM-B 43 Water Transport (Landing Craft) Company were stationed on Coochiemudlo Island to train for their role in moving personnel around the coastline of New Guinea. The water transport training centre was initially established at Victoria Point in 1943 and training was conducted between the mainland and Coochiemudlo. Victoria Barracks asked about the 1st Australian Water Transport occupying the southern end of the reserve for a training centre. They were there by the end of 1943 but had trouble with local farmers’ pigs. The camps had a big impact on the main road to the Point due to increased very heavy traffic for the military camp. Council suggested bitumening Victoria Point Road later, as a post war construction project.

During World War II, Land Army Girls were stationed in many parts of the Shire including Victoria Point. They worked the farms while the men were away at war, and they had a camp in Colburn Avenue.

By the end of 1944 the pressures of war were easing. Trenches provided at the various parish halls in the district as air raid shelters had become breeding grounds for mosquitoes and committees of management notified they would be filled in and that blacking out of their halls could be removed. Slit trenches in the district were filled in. Particulars of a government funded subsidy scheme to assist with carrying out post-war work were forwarded to the two Shire Councils. However, food and clothing rationing continued for a considerable time.

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The Victoria Barracks agreed to pay £32 per annum ($56) compensation for use of the reserve; it had also taken over the whole of the reserve by this stage. Tingalpa Shire Council found it in much worse condition than when the military had arrived. Australian Military Forces agreed to fix it. The Main Roads Department told Council to get the military to pay for repairs to main road, and the Military agreed to gravel it. The Victoria Point Road was targeted for post-war reconstruction.

Reserve was handed back to the Tingalpa Shire Council in September 1944. Mr S Masters built a boat slip on the reserve and the military had also built a boat slip there. Council heard that there was a record number of campers on the reserve over Easter 1945. This may have been at least partly due to the Wellington Point reserve still being closed to camping, after the departure of the US military who had been operating a Naval Gunnery training camp on the reserve there. Concerns about live ammunition still in the area proved well-founded when a mine was discovered floating nearby a couple of years after the US departure, and was safely detonated.

Busloads of day-trippers at Victoria Point in the 1940s HP06243

An old age pensioner had been living in a hut on the Victoria Point reserve, tending to Mr Moreton’s jetty. He died and his hut was removed, and Council resolved to not allow any more huts to be built on there. The sea wall was repaired during July, and Mr Masters was told to remove his boat slip. The jetty had some decking removed and was closed by the Council. Mr McLean was refused permission to hire out boats from the jetty which he had been doing for some time, and was infringing Council’s bylaws. The Main Roads Department and Tingalpa Shire Council jointly agreed to plant trees along the Victoria Point road. Council offered the jetty to the Department of Harbours and Marine. The Department declined. Mrs KL Griffith was allowed to build a shed at the reserve for storage of farm produce; however Doug Morton of Coochiemudlo wasn’t allowed to build a boat shed next to his jetty. And McLean was still hiring out boats.

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Lights were at last installed on the reserve, and Council repaired the jetty. Mr Master’s boat slip was still there and a petition reached Council asking that it stay. It was removed when Masters declined other sites offered Council.

The Tingalpa Shire Clerk was told he was 50 years ahead of his time when he tabled a proposal to develop an “up to date camping area with a bitumen road circling same at an approximate cost of £10,000 ($17,500) this would yield a revenue of £1160 ($2,000).” He was sent off to look at Southport and to see what the local Council did there, and also to assess its sanitary system. Another plan was to add two bedrooms to the kiosk: he was told by Council to send it out to tender.

Council resolved to approach the Department of Local Government for plans for a two bedroom extension of the kiosk, as well as 1.5 chains (30m) of concrete walling in front of kiosk, 2 dressing sheds and septic services for gents and ladies. A well was also to be sunk, and Tingalpa Shire Council was also negotiating to buy the QATB First Aid hut on the reserve.

Homes had an alternative to the septic tank system available to them. It was the scarily-named Dissolvenator. The Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences describe it: Mr Dixon applied to erect landing from his property, which was approved. CR Smith took over the kiosk from Lockyer. The Land Administration Board suggested Tingalpa Shire Council take over administration of the reserve so that it could improve it. Council agreed to do so, but then the Land Administration Board rejected the application.

Logs from tree clearing on Coochiemudlo Island were taken to their Cleveland sawmill by the Beutels, after carting them from Victoria Point. Eric and George Beutel and Joe Howell with their Blitz truck at Victoria Point, hauling logs from Coochiemudlo Island in the 1940s. HP00895

“This formidable swirling toilet was an Australian product, designed for use in unsewered areas, and available from hardware retailers from the 1930s to the 1970s. Called the Hygeia Dissolvenator, it consists of a toilet pan mounted on a cylindrical tank. When the lid of the seat was lifted a geared mechanism rotated the material in the tank.

Broken up by this mechanical action and disinfected by caustic crystals that were added each week, the resulting sterile solution could be discharged into the soil. The rotating action of the tank was the reason this toilet was popularly called 'the chocolate wheel'. The manufacturer's advertisements claimed that Hygeia Dissolvenators were odourless, but many country people recall that they were anything but.”

The water tank needed to be topped up by adding a bucketful of water once or twice a day.

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1949

After the war Victoria Point had continued its importance as a tourist destination, although farming remained the main industry. Small businesses sprang up to serve the increasing population. These included holiday flats, new shops, an electrician, service station, and carrying transport businesses.

Redland Shire came into being when the northern and eastern parts of Tingalpa Shire and the whole of Cleveland Shire merged. This local government merger was one of several in south-east Queensland at the time. The suggestion had been around for a long time; in 1907 the Cleveland Shire Council had considered the advisability of amalgamating the two shires. The first chairman of the new Redland Shire Council was JHN (Norm) Price, formerly the chairman of the Cleveland Shire Council. The main issue for the new council was the same as before: the endless building and maintenance of the district’s roads, parks, jetties and foreshores. The previous year, in 1948 Stradbroke Island had become part of the Cleveland Shire.

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1950s The new Redland Shire’s population was about 5,600. In 1950, enrolments at the Victoria Point State School was 92 students.

Farming was still central to life in Victoria Point, and the Redlands Centenary Souvenir 1850 – 1950 included this article:

Camping areas included the Victoria Point and Wellington Point reserves, the cricket ground reserve (GJ Walter Park), Oyster Point reserve and the Thorneside public reserve.

In the early years Redland Shire Council was kept busy. Storms and the resulting flooding washed out one third of the Cleveland Shire’s 30 miles (50 kms) of gravel roads. Resident medical officer Dr Poole recommended a regular garbage collection service be introduced, but council said there was insufficient population to justify a permanent service in place of the present intermittent collection.

Council was investigating a new bathing pavilion and new road on the Victoria Point reserve. Work was also done on the kiosk, with tea rooms proposed. The camping area also more clearly defined; new earth closets (ECs - toilets) being built; and a new brick building that was not quite finished but was in use anyway. Camping numbers down from previous years. All work finished by March 1951.

Redland Shire Council was investigating a tree planting scheme with the Forestry Department to replace Ironbark trees that were becoming dangerous. As if to make the point, a tree fell on the Gents ECs during a cyclone. Water and waste disposal was already a real problem on the reserve, so this didn’t help.

Campers on the Victoria Point reserve, 1940s HP00363

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Victoria Point State School, Prep and Grade 1, 1952 HP05286

CH Wright wanted to build a boat slip. The farmer’s jetty needed work and the Victoria Point jetty came under the control of Redland Shire Council in 1951. Council canvassed various fruit growers organisations on the islands; Coochiemudlo Island growers said the jetty was only used for visitors, campers etc. They also corresponded with Victoria Point residents asking whether they should repair or demolish the Victoria Point jetty. Steel was purchased for some repairs. In 1952 Doug Morton advised Council he had been given permission in 1931 to build and use the jetty on the Victoria Point reserve by chairman and shire clerk of Tingalpa Shire Council at £5 ($8.85) per annum. A year later Council received unofficial notification that a new government Victoria Point jetty would be built.

Boats like the Roo and the Amazon continued to transport farm produce from the islands and southern parts of Moreton Bay into the 1950s. HP00613

In 1954 the new jetty was built to serve the small passenger ferry to Coochiemudlo Island as well as private boats. 12 months later a Brisbane resident asked the Council to install rails and a trolley on the Victoria Point jetty for unloading shell grit from Macleay Island. At the same time Council asked the Department of Harbours and Marine to either extend the jetty or dredge around it to ensure that there was sufficient depth of water at low tide. The department and Council discussed whether the old jetty should be burnt down and the metal remains sold for scrap.

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After many years of turning a blind eye to temporary buildings in the Shire, Council decided to stop giving building permission because they were finding the owners never got around to building a permanent structure. The Redland Bay Flying Boat base opened on 1 June 1953, used by QANTAS and Ansett with most planes being either long or short bodied Sandringhams. The Flying Boats had a maintenance ramp and shed at eastern end of Thompson’s beach. Not long after flight operations began, the Redlands Fruit Growers Association met with airline officials to negotiate freight arrangements on behalf of their 600 members, particularly for perishables such as strawberries and beans.

Qantas Short Sandringham VH-EBV Pacific Warrior about to land at Redland Bay from Sydney after resumption of services to Noumea and Suva in July 1953. HP00957

By contrast, farmers at Victoria Point complained that salt water falling from the planes as they passed over their farms would ruin their tomato crops. Residents called for electricity to be made available to Victoria Point. The Victoria Point Progress Association was formed in November 1955. The Association’s very first goal was to get a new bus service for Victoria Point. Mr Shooter of the Belmont Bus Service commenced the service in September. Innovations in farming plastic products were in the news. A leaking dam at Victoria Point was patched up with plastic sheeting, and an exhibition of plastic irrigation pipes was held, also at Victoria Point.

Queensland Cinetone Company was given permission to conduct an open air theatre on Mr Holt’s property in Victoria Point. T O’Shea advertised his store in the Redlands Centenary Souvenir 1850 -1950, as did Staff’s Service Station, News Agency and Gift Shop.

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L-R: Thompson’s Beach, Moorurrapum Creek, Colburn Avenue, farmland, 1957 HP5091

The Strawberry Festival was revived in October 1958 at Victoria Point, where it ran for a couple of years.

. The festival was held in the reserve at the Point, and although the festival was a great success, parking proved to be an issue with visitors having to walk up to two miles from their parked car to reach the grounds. After a 5-year gap, in 1965 it was held at the Cleveland showgrounds, continuing there for over 40 years, with some aspects such as strawberry eating competitions and strawberry ice-creams enduring as part of RedFest. The cover of the 1958 Strawberry Festival Programme HP07014

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Tourism was important to the area, and the beaches were a popular destination.

Thompson’s Beach, April 1958 HP03428

Dick Whitehall started the first official ferry service between Coochiemudlo Island and Victoria Point. Previously Doug Morton had operated an unofficial service. However regular daily services did not start until 1968.

The Country Women’s Association (CWA) asked Redland Shire Council to rename Main Road Victoria Point Colburn Highway, to “perpetuate the name of DW Colbourne [sic] who was the first settler in this district 102 years ago.” 1960s Doug Morton was given permission to improve the approaches to his 1931 jetty on the reserve, and Main Road was renamed Colburn Avenue.

Council’s proposal to incorporate Coochiemudlo Island in the Shire met with protests from the islanders: “The main reasons given by the islanders for the objections they have filed with the shire are that the shire can do nothing for them, that there is no direct link with the shire, no possibility of any health services being effectively carried out, no roads to build or maintain, and that in fact the shire is merely seeking to extend its sources of revenue. In spite of this, the shire is determined to incorporate the island as it is seen as an excellent extension of Victoria Point and that a causeway if built would integrate the island very conveniently within the Victoria Point reserves and amenities and prove an excellent addition to the shire attractions.”

On 1 July 1962 Coochiemudlo Island became part of the Redland Shire.

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One month later on 16 July 1962, a flying boat the Grumman Mallard had an emergency landing and was pulled up onto a boat ramp at Victoria Point for repairs, believed to be at the end of Thompsons Beach, where Tranquil Waters retirement village was later built. The Mallard proved unsuitable for the runs being undertaken at the time, and was sold to a New Zealand airline.

The Redlands Branch of the One People of Australia League (OPAL) was formed in June 1963. OPAL had been set up in 1961 “to assist governments with the assimilation of Aboriginal people”. The Redlands Branch was called on to play a role in the management of land on which an Aboriginal community lived inn Link Road, Victoria Point. In December the Scouting Association offered the community 1 acre of land on Eprapah Creek but the offer came to nothing. Wayne Coolwell’s extended family had occupied three tin huts at Eprapah Creek for about 10 years, and Aboriginal people of that time at Victoria Point provided many of the fishing, oystering and boating needs of the bayside during the 1950s and 1960s. Dr Ray Kerkhove.

The Grumma Mallard sitting on a boat ramp at Wellington Point, 1962. From Wings on the river by D Jones. Image: Merlean Black

Mallard image

The first high school in the Redland Shire - Cleveland High School – opened in 1962. It was the first new school to open in the district since 1916, and was to be the first of many new schools to open over the next decades. However it would be another 16 years before the Capalaba High School opened.

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Eprapah camp Link Road School & School Road Aboriginal family QImagery 1955 Aerial The lreserve for the log rafting ground was on the eastern side of the Eprapah camp. Daniel Colburn Snr’s farm

In her 1994 Oral History interview Hazel Close says “They had a sort of an encampment on Eprapah Creek, which wasn't that far from the school, because you know where the school is on School Road, well, you just keep on going, turn left, and you'll come down to the Creek. They were an awfully - they were nice people, those old men that were there. They were gentle and made you welcome, and would pick a bunch of grapes for you from the grape vine. I mean, you know, they were really nice people”. The small buildings (Eprapah Camp) in this 1955 aerial image were still there in 1967, but were gone by 1970. Other locals recall an Aboriginal family living on Point Halloran Road (the old section that is now Egret Drive, shown in the aerial above). Their house was at the entrance to a farm and house built on the site of the old Raff and Nuttall cottage where the father worked. Due to subdivisions and road realignments, the farmhouse is now in Jaidan Court.

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Point Halloran and Coochiemudlo Island, 1960-62 HP06167

In December 1965 the Redland News reported that: “The dreams which the promoters of the Victoria Point Canal Development Scheme have been nurturing for some time now look as if they are well on their way to reality and we understand that most of the administrative and govt. hurdles have now been jumped and very little remains for full sanction to be accorded, and the blessing of the Real Estate Institute having ben already assured, it seems that before very long Victoria Point will have a Canal and Reclamation Development Estate Scheme which will rival the best in Florida. Briefly the scheme envisages the subdivision of land at Victoria Point into allotments which will have, every one of them, a road access and a bat access and jetty or mooring privately owned by the owner of the allotment.” The scheme was seen as bringing good quality homes into area, plus facilities for boaties.

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Barney’s truck on Thompson’s Beach, 1963-64. Barney was a local lobster fisherman: children kept an eye on his boat. HP4558

The Redlands Australian Rules Football Club was formed in 1966 in Victoria Point. Mains electricity reached Russell Island in 1967, which sparked a debate in Council about incorporating the Bay Islands – Russell, Macleay, Lamb and Karragarra – into the Shire. The Victoria Point Rangers, Guides and Brownies were established. In 1967 they had first met in Boat Street, in the open air, before making use of the Public Hall on Point Halloran Road until 1969. The Leslie Harrison Dam was finished in 1968. The Shire’s first houses were connected to town water at the end of the year, courtesy of the Leslie Harrison Dam. In September the water was turned on for households in Victoria Point and Wellington Point. Tenders were called for resuming swampy land south of Thompson Street. It took 55,000 cubic yards of fill.

Council approved the erection of a Sea Scouts Hall at Victoria Point. Boys from the Victoria Point Sea Scouts group enjoyed a camp in 1968. Social media image, location unknown, 2019

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Complaints were received by Council about smells coming from EA Wild and GM Gurr’s poultry manure dehydration plant operating off Bunker Road. Council ordered it to be closed unless the smell could be eliminated. In December consent for the operation was withdrawn by Council and the operation was ordered to close. Later that month the notice was amended pending consideration of the installation of new plant. At a special meeting of Redland Shire Council in 1965 to discuss new shire chambers: Mr Stapleton, secretary of the Brisbane Library Board attended meeting and said if shire set up free library service, it was qualify for subsidies and loan of books. So a public library was included in new building as there was no extra cost.

Captain Cook Bicentenary booklet 1977 The Redland Star, 1968

The old Council building had two parts, and both were re-purposed. The 1886 Shire Office became the Victoria Point Guide & Brownie hut (opened June 1969), and the Shire Hall became the Wellington Point Girl Guides Hut (opened October 1969). The Victoria Point Guide and Brownie hut later became the clubhouse of the Buick Car Club Queensland, and the Wellington Point Guides hut is now part of the Community Arts Precinct.

1886 Shire Office in Colburn Avenue The Shire Hall in Roberts Street Victoria Point Wellington Point. Google Street Views

A new brick Redland Shire Council Building was opened in 1969, at the old site on the south-west corner of Bloomfield and Middle Streets Cleveland. A new Redland Shire Council Building was opened in 1969, on the old site at the corner of Bloomfield and Middle Streets.

1886 Shire Office (left) and Shire Hall (below)

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1970s A new jetty was officially opened on Victoria Point and the old timber jetty was decommissioned.

Boat ramp and jetty at Victoria Point, c1960s/70s. Image courtesy Australian National Maritime Museum ANMS1152[906]

Council applied for a loan for planning purposes for the Shire’s sewerage system. Many subdivisions were approved in the early 1970s, now that the many drainage problems around the shire were being eased by the connection of the sewerage system. During the 1970s farmers gradually turned to growing flowers rather than the traditional small crops. Flowers could be grown all year round in shade-houses. Sometimes the seedlings were kept in cold rooms to artificially acclimatise them to cooler temperatures so that they would flower in the Queensland winter once they were removed from the cold rooms. Artificial lighting was also used to control flowering times.

Flower farm lights glowing through the night were a familiar sight. Social media image

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The Redlands branch of the Wildlife Preservation Society met for the first time in July. Cyril Ford was elected president and Mrs JC Smith secretary. Under discussion was preparing a case to have 200 acres of country around Eprapah Creek, Victoria Point, declared a reserve for teaching purposes.

In 1971 the Victoria Point and Wellington Point halls stopped operating as picture theatres.

The last flying boat to use Redland Bay. Ansett FBS Short Sandringham VH-BRF Islander makes its last fly-past on its departure for Sydney at 5.15pm on 23 October 1971. HP00962

The Redland Bay flying boat base had stopped operating by 1971.

On 12 May 1973 the Southern Moreton Bay Islands of Russell, Karragarra, Lamb, Perulpa and Macleay became part of the Redland Shire. This was in line with moves throughout Queensland to bring coastal islands under the control of local authorities. Mr Arch Gibson was elected as the first councillor for the new Division 6 on 30 June 1973.

Camping was banned on the mainland from 1975, ending a century-old tradition. Campers were encouraged to use the camping areas on North Stradbroke Island instead. The family recreation centre was opened on Link Road, Victoria Point in 1975. It had been built by the Hauser family on a former pumpkin patch.

The Seventh Day Adventist Church built its first aged person units in Victoria Point in 1974 and in 1976, and in 1976 the Shire’s first houses were connected to the new sewerage system.

Victoria Point Community Hall built in the 1970s, on the corner of Colburn Avenue and Link Road, 2004 HP04565

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A new Victoria Point Community Hall was built on the south west corner of Link Road and Colburn Avenue and the Girl Guides moved out of their building in Cascades Park in 1979, 10 years after moving into the old shire office building there. They moved into the old Victoria Point Public Hall at 11 Point Halloran Road, which they leased initially for 20 years, and named it Monkani. This old public hall had also been an agency for the E S & A Bank, which had been taken over by the ANZ in 1970, and is still used by the Guides. 1980s In March 1980 work began on a sewerage system for Victoria Point. The first area connected was between Colburn Avenue/Link Road, Boat Street and the Esplanade near Thompson Street.

Wishing Well Tea House in 1991 Rural Press HP01513

It was first opened as the Wishing Well Tea House in the early 1980s by Pat & Lenore Robbins and Marion Sweeney, who had noted in the local newspaper that until it opened, there was “nowhere between Cleveland and Redland Bay to sit down and enjoy a snack”. They spent many months restoring the shop and they closed the well to make it safe. They later erected a shingle roof over it. Later in the 1980s the Pelican’s Nest Shopping Centre opened in Colburn Avenue on the corner of Thompson Street

Pelican’s Nest Shopping Centre in the 1990s HP08531

The Wishing Well Tea House opened; the building was originally a bait shop and real estate office. The well was possibly sunk by servicemen who occupied the area during WWII. It has a 35ft (or just over 10.5 metres) deep shaft holding 2 – 3 metres of water, or it may possibly have been sunk by Tingalpa Shire Council at the request of campers in 1948, shortly before amalgamation.

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In 1982 the South East Queensland Electricity Board (SEQEB) began work to provide electricity to Karragarra, Lamb and Macleay Islands. Blocks in the Koala Park Estate in Victoria Point went on sale in 1983, and work began on the Point Halloran estate.

At that time, the 140 year-old name of the Point, and of its road, seems to have become confused with the name of a local 20th Century farming family called O’Halloran.

According to the local accounts, a road to the O’Halloran’s farm may once have been known as O’Halloran’s Road (as was common practice at the time). However, O’Halloran has never been the official recorded name of any road in the area, and the Point itself has never been called O’Halloran.

1985 was a busy year in Victoria Point:

The Victoria Point indoor cricket centre opened.

Work began on Stage 2 of the Golf Shores estate off Benfer Road, Victoria Point, and the Bay Gardens estate in Victoria Point.

The Elanora Estate on Link Road, began land sales. House and land packages were around $50,000

Point Halloran Waters blocks went on sale from $35,000 to more than $50,000.

The Victoria Point Family sports Centre developed by the Hauser family was taken over by a Queensland consortium.

Halloran or O’Halloran? Until this time, the road had been named ‘Point Halloran Road’ and it had a ‘dog-leg’ about halfway between Colburn Avenue and Point Halloran. During the many subdivisions that were being developed, the road was re-routed into a more direct, straight line through what was Adelphi Street.

The old southern part of Point Halloran Road was re-named Egret Drive and the short east-west ‘dog-leg’ section became part of Albert Street.

Adelphi Street: QImagery aerial 1978 and Sunmap Cadastral map 1978

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The Koala Park shopping centre in Victoria Point opened in March 1986 on the southern side of Bunker Road, near the Cleveland-Redland Bay Road intersection.

Construction is nearly completed at the Koala Park Shopping Centre, 1986 HP08273

1990s

Federal and State governments refused to allocate funds towards an environmental park at the mouth of Eprapah Creek. Redland Shire Council purchased a significant portion of freehold land at Point Halloran for conservation purposes, and the Eprapah Link wildlife corridor opened. A joint venture of the Scouting Association of Queensland and Redland Shire Council, the corridor was designed to provide safe passage for koalas between Eprapah wildlife sanctuary and Karingal camping ground at the Mount Cotton headwaters of Eprapah Creek.

Redland Shire Council approved the rezoning of 6.51 hectares of land behind Victoria Point Family Sports Centre for conventional homes, as opposed to cluster housing that had at first been proposed. Much of the land in the area had been used for flower farms. Mangroves on Victoria Point foreshore were cleared to make way for a proposed hotel and townhouse development along Thompson Street.

A large 140 tonne steel boat was built in a paddock on Colburn Avenue where it became a landmark for several years until it was launched in 1996.

HP8754

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The first stage of the Salford Waters Retirement Estate at Victoria Point opened in 1992, at the mouth of Moogurrapum Creek on the western end of Thompsons Beach.

QImagery 1993

In 1996 plans were announced for major retail developments at Victoria Point over the next years, including a tripling of the retail space at the Koala Park shopping centre.

Clockwise from centre left: Bunker Road with Koala Park Shopping Centre on its southern side and a quarry (now a lake) to the north; Cleveland-Redland Bay Road running north-south; Eprapah Environmental Education and Scouts Centre; Colburn Avenue with caravan park at the intersection with Cleveland-Redland Bay Road; Housing estate including Magnolia and Sycamore Parades and Waratah Avenue; A trotting track on the site of the current Victoria Point Shopping Centre.

QImagery 1993

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Victoria Point State High School was officially opened by Education Minister Bob Quinn in 1997.

Principal Kevin McKennariey checks construction of Victoria Point State High School in 1996 as it nears completion. HP09134

In 1998 building began on a new shopping centre south of Koala Park and a new jetty was opened at Victoria Point.

The nearly completed Victoria Point jetty, alongside the old 1970 jetty, 1997. HP08755

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21st Century Plans were launched for extensive subdivisions between Redland Bay Road, Colburn Avenue, Benfer Road and Link Road. Point Halloran was booming in the 1980s and the urban subdivision have been ongoing since that time with Victoria Point now one of the fastest growing areas in the shire.

The population of the Redlands reached 111,585. Alexandra Hills, which had only been developed over the previous 35 years had the highest population with 18,096, followed by (in order) Capalaba, Victoria Point, Birkdale, Cleveland, Wellington Point, Thornlands, Redland Bay, Ormiston, the Islands (Southern Moreton Bay Islands, North Stradbroke and Coochiemudlo), Mount Cotton/Sheldon, and Thorneside.

Victoria Point became a popular suburb for retirement complexes, and at least 10 are within a 5km radius of the Victoria Point CBD.

Work began in 2003 on McDonald’s restaurant at Victoria Point, and a second shopping centre was planned for the eastern side of Redland Bay Road. Controversially, this Town Centre development was to include a Tavern, which opened soon afterwards.

Advertisement for Town Centre Victoria Point, 2006 Bayside Bulletin 31/01/2006

Victoria Point Library opened in 2006, and the Cineplex complex opened at Lakeside the following year as the lakeside Shopping Centre was developed alongside a former quarry that had been transformed into a lake.

Victoria Point Shopping Centre opened in 1999 on the site of the former trotting (harness racing) track south of the Koala Park shopping centre. QImagery 2002

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Cr Peter Dowling and Chairman Don Seccombe open the Victoria Point Library, 2006

A Vet, Ben Cunneen from David Lovell’s Redlands Veterinary Clinic died from Hendra Virus (horse flu) on 21 August, 2008. That year we became a City, reflecting the huge changes over the years since amalgamation and formation of Redland Shire. Roads in and out of Victoria Point and Redland Bay are very few, and all are for the most part single lane roads, and they struggle to meet the rapidly growing needs of the residents of these southern suburbs. Plans are in place to improve the infrastructure. On 31 December 2019 a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan China was soon identified as a novel (new) coronavirus, named Covid19. As 2020 dawned, unprecedented catastrophic bushfires were devastating widespread areas of Australia. Many had been burning since well before Christmas. At the same time, parts of north Queensland experienced flooding.

As the nation reeled and rallied behind people in the affected regions, cases of the Covid19 virus began to increase and then started to spread around the world, and it was finally declared a pandemic on 11 March.

Social/physical distancing, hand-washing and sanitizing, and restrictions on gatherings in public places gained momentum. By the end of March places that regularly had crowds of people including libraries, galleries, tourist destinations, theatres etc were closed, and people were asked to stay at home except for essential travel or exercise.

National and state borders closed.

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Locally, in addition to many public places, North Stradbroke Island was closed to non-residents for all but essential travel. Controversy arose as some people who owned island holiday homes changed their Drivers Licence addresses in an effort to spend isolation (and Easter) on the island.

In the midst of Covid19 isolation and social distancing, on 28 March 2020 Local Government Election proceeded, with some voters protesting by choosing either not to vote, or to cast an informal vote. Many others had voted early or voted by post. Counting and results were delayed because of social distancing combined with a computer malfunction, and by mid-April only around 80-85% of votes had been tallied.

On July 13 2020 a Redlands man was the first person to be injected with a trial vaccine for the Covid19 virus.

Just a few days later a surge in cases appeared in Victoria, with numbers far greater than in the initial outbreaks. Queensland borders became closed to Victorian residents, and to NSW residents living in identified ‘hot-spots’, before closing to the whole of NSW. Locally we could just hope that restrictions would keep Queensland safe. Financially the country was now considered to be heading for a depression greater than that of 100 years earlier.

Job and income losses created enormous stress, coupled with isolation from usual family and support networks. Acts of kindness and humour created some relief. A costumed dog-walker in Cleveland each day became a highlight on social media. Rural Press images

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1973 1998 2019

So what had happened to trigger this rapid growth at the end of the 1900s?

We had a permanent water supply after the Leslie Harrison Dam was built (1968).

Sewerage resolved the many drainage problems that had existed throughout the Shire, and which had been preventing high-density development (1976).

A four-lane road was built between Capalaba and Brisbane (1982) then extended to Cleveland (1988) making a daily commute much faster, and the Redlands became an attractive prospect for those wishing to live outside of the city, while still being able to work there.

The trains returned (1986) which added another option for commuters.

The Commonwealth Games (1982) and Expo 88 (1988) brought many visitors to the area along the new fast roads, and many like what they saw and stayed or came back later to live in the Redlands.

As farmland was developed, the infrastructure that had existed to ensure produce reached markets in prime condition had started to disintegrate; this in turn made it harder for the remaining farms to sustain their viability, and so the temptation to sell to developers became harder for farmers to resist as the demand for housing increased.

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Sources:

Mary Howells: Places of the Redlands

Tracy Ryan: Redlands master timeline 1770 – 2010

Cleveland Shire Council: Minutes and Rates records

Tingalpa Shire Council: Minutes and Rates records

Redland Shire Council: Minutes and Rates records

Rural Press: Redland Times and Bayside Bulletin

Redland Libraries: Local History Collections including Oral Histories and Images

Queensland State Library

Queensland State Archives

National Library of Australia: Trove

National Archives of Australia

Queensland Births, Deaths & Marriages

Historical Title Deeds

Post Office directories

Ancestry Library edition

Redland City Council Cemeteries Register

Queensland Heritage Register

Queensland Government historical maps and aerial imagery

Other sources as noted in document The document has been prepared for general reading rather than as an academic document. For that reason, referencing has not been included in it. However, all research has been thoroughly and diligently undertaken to academic standards by using primary sources as much as possible; existing academic papers, theses, and books; and by cross-checking information across more than one source. Personal recollections from memoirs or Oral Histories have all been cross-checked against historical records unless otherwise stated. Detailed references are available on request. Names and places, and language: Names, places and language have been included as recorded in their original context. While every effort has been made to avoid offensive material, historical records reflect the norm that existed at that time, and it is important that they are reproduced truthfully.

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Aboriginal Place names are acknowledged: Cullen Cullen - Wellington Point, Birkdale & Thorneside Erobin - King Island Nandeebie or Indillie - Cleveland, Thornlands, Ormiston, Alexandra Hills Doobawah - Raby Bay Quandamooka - Moreton Bay Kapallaba - Capalaba Joonggabbin - Sheldon Jungalpin or Tungipin - Mount Cotton Talwalpin - Redland Bay Warrer Warrer - Victoria Point Eprapa - Pinklands Minjerribah - Stradbroke Island Canaipa - Russell Island Jencoomercha - Macleay Island Goochie mudlo - Coochiemudlo Island Ngudooroo - Lamb Island Tindappah - Garden Island Teerk Roo Ra - Peel Island Noogoon - St Helena Island Milwarpin - Green Island Mubanbila - Bird Island Guwawanewa - Goat Island Perulpa - Perulpa Island Karragarra - Karragarra Island Mulgumpin - Moreton Island Pulan - Amity Point Mooloombah - Point Lookout Goompi - Dunwich Karboora - Blue Lake Bummiera - Brown Lake

To find more information about some of the stories included in this timeline, search in the library catalogue via the Local History link or by clicking on the Libraries or Discover Redlands Coast link on the Redland City Council website https://www.redland.qld.gov.au and following the links to Local History. Snippets:

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Wikipedia Commons, owner John Oxley Library SLQ, 1912.

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Northern Star Lismore 28 December 1918

Brisbane Courier 29 June 1915 p2

Vic Percival’s car stuck in Eprapah Creek (Dodd’s Creek) in the 1920s HP00472

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Redland Times, nd

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Brisbane Courier 8 December 1925, p12

Courier Mail 21 October 1933, p18

Daily Mail 15 January 1926, p11

Brisbane Courier 16 December 1926 p9

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Telegraph 7 July 1939 p3

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Top to Bottom: Stradbroke Island; Macleay Island; Coochiemudlo Island; Point Halloran, 1986

Point Halloran Farms, Eprapah Creek on left-hand side, date unknown

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Boat slip Victoria Point, 1950 HP00900

Boat slip on Wilson Esplanade Victoria Point, 2013 HP06543